The Associate by John Grisham (2009)

My extra-ultra-fantastic former colleague and all-around groovy gal RY emailed me with the exciting news that best-selling author John Grisham (The Firm, The Client, The Pelican Brief) includes a reference to Scranton in his latest chart topper The Associate.

Grisham's latest legal thriller, published on January 27, 2009, tells the story of Kyle McAvoy, a second-generation lawyer from York, Pennsylvania with a dark secret from his past and a new job as an associate in the largest law firm in the world--where being a criminal is expected of him.

The Scranton reference appears on page 248, where Kyle is being interrogated by FBI agents in a Holiday Inn hotel room. The topic is a rape victim named Elaine:

''She was troubled. Her grades were a mess. She now claims that the rape brought on severe emotional distress. She lived with her parents for a year or so in Erie, then began drifting. A lot of self-medication, booze and drugs. She saw some therapists, but nothing helped. Have you heard any of this?''

''No. After she left school, there was not a word.''

''Anyway, she has an older sister in Scranton who took her in, got her some help, paid for rehab."

A full-text preview of the first four chapters of The Associate are available on Entertainment Weekly's website. To view the page from Chapter 3 that includes the reference to Scranton, click here (it appears a little past the halfway point of the webpage). To start reading from th beginning of Chapter 1, click here.

Circulating copies of John Grisham's The Associate are available to borrow from the Lackawanna County Library System. To place a hold, click here.

Much thanks again to the incredibly awesome RY for this reference. I owe you a caramel coffee, RY ;-)